Featured Analysis19-Jul-10: The much awaited GAO Report on ancillaries coincided with last week's House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Aviation Subcommittee hearings. These were all about transparency, taxes along with populism, as it became open season on Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza, as Congress turned its attention on airline fees. The outcome is likely to be pressures - and most probably more regulations - to require greater transparency - and even, possibly, rolling back ancillary charges. There was also talk of (perhaps double) taxation of such charges. Regulations would also cover foreign airline disclosure, if the GAOs recommendations are accepted. 14-Jul-10: Qantas, with 50 firm B787 orders and another 50 or so options/rights, is one of Boeing’s largest clients for the Dreamliner aircraft and gets second billing with the manufacturer after All Nippon Airways, the seed purchaser. The latest move, announced today, will now reverse the order in which Qantas’ LCC subsidiary Jetstar receives the aircraft. This implies an important reshaping of Qantas/Jetstar’s domestic and international strategy. 09-Jul-10: European LCCs, led by Ryanair, easyJet and Air Berlin, commanded 32% of intra-Europe capacity (seats) in 2009, representing spectacular growth from just 4.6% less than 10 years ago in 2001 and a 20.2% share in 2005. But the 'big three' are just part of the story. This special two-part CAPA report looks beyond the headline-grabbing 'big three' European LCCs to provide updates on more than 20 of Europe’s secondary LCCs. Part I reviews Air Southwest, Anadolujet, Atlasjet Airlines, Belle Air, Blue Express, Blue Air, bmibaby, CLICK4SKY, Flybe, Germanwings, Iceland Express and Jet2.com, while Part II (coming soon) will review the progress at Monarch, NIKI, Pegasus Airlines, SkyExpress, Smart Wings, Sun Express, Sverigeflyg, Thomson Airways, Transavia.com, TUIFly, Wind Jet and Wizz Air. 03-Sep-10: European airline shares were mixed on Thursday (02-Sep-2010), mirroring a day of mixed trading. On the whole, European markets ended the session slightly lower, despite the European Central Bank’s announcement of plans to keep interest rates down. 03-Sep-10: Air Mauritius shares rose by 6.4% on Thursday (02-Sep-2010). On the same day the carrier awarded MAS Aerospace Engineering (MAE) a one-year maintenance agreement for eight aircraft, comprising six A340-200s and two A330-200s. 03-Sep-10: Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation and Ukraine’s Antonov could establish a manufacturing JV within two months. According to Antonov President and Chief Designer, Dmytro Kiva, negotiations between the two state-owned firms are well underway and an agreement could be made before Nov-2010. 03-Sep-10: ASUR – operator of Mexico’s Cancun, Merida, Cozumel, Villahermosa, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Huatulco, Tapachula and Minatitlan airports – reports total passenger traffic for Aug-2010 increased 9% year-over-year. 03-Sep-10: easyJet shares gained 2.8% yesterday, coinciding with Deutsche Bank commentary that stated the outlook for airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet is more positive than other European carriers. 03-Sep-10: Shares in Hong Kong-listed Chinese carriers were generally stronger yesterday, led by China Eastern Airlines, with a share price surge of 5.5%. Shares in Air China, China Southern and Hainan Airlines, meanwhile, gained 4.3%, 2.4% and 0.9%, respectively, with Cathay Pacific shares increasing 2.9%. |